Thiruvananthapuram Aug 27 (IANS) In what could be one of the more pointed expressions of unease from within the CPI-M’s Kerala unit in recent times, its Thrissur district committee member and former DYFI state Secretary T. Sashidharan has invoked the sacrifices of party martyrs, the ideological legacy of communism, and a warning from Lenin to question what he sees as the party’s drift towards power, money, and the comforts of office.
Though he did not name former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan or make any direct allegation against him, the timing and tenor of Sasidharan’s social media post give it a significance far beyond an ideological reflection.
Coming when Vijayan is facing renewed pressure over the Enforcement Directorate proceedings involving his daughter Veena Vijayan, and amid criticism of the former Chief Minister from within the CPI-M, the post is likely to be read as a veiled critique of the decade-long Vijayan era.
Sasidharan, a staunch supporter of former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, begins by recalling party workers who were brutally beaten to death in prisons and those killed by political enemies.
It was their sacrifices, he says, that created the party and made possible what it enjoys today: “power, beautiful offices, cars, and modern facilities”.
The contrast appears deliberate.
Recalling the political discussions of his younger days, Sasidharan says they revolved around (Italian ideologue Antonio) Gramsci, Mao, Che Guevara, Naxalism and revolution.
The dreams of that generation, he writes, were of humanism and equality and of a society without exploitation.
He then turned to money and business.
“Business, financial dealings and the immorality that often accompanies them were never part of our way of life,” he held, arguing that a party representing millions living in poverty cannot adopt the curriculum produced by modern capitalism.
The passage acquires added political weight against the backdrop of the controversy surrounding financial transactions involving Veena Vijayan’s company and the continuing ED investigation.
Sasidharan, however, makes no direct reference to Veena or the probe.
The sharpest passage comes when he invokes Lenin, quoting the revolutionary leader’s warning that parties that perish do so because of their arrogance and because they fail to recognise where their real strength lies.
Sasidharan then calls for a leadership committed to serving the people and capable of attracting those who genuinely want to work for them.
“We must recognise not only the things we get right, but also the mistakes we sometimes make,” he says, stressing the need to correct them quickly.
The post therefore stops short of an open attack on any individual.
But its underlying message is that a party born out of sacrifice cannot allow power, privilege, money and distance from ordinary people to erode its ideological foundations; it inevitably raises questions about the political culture that has evolved during the Vijayan years.
For a leader associated with the old Achuthanandan camp, the intervention carries an added layer of significance. Achuthanandan’s emphasis on austerity, popular accessibility, and resistance to the concentration of power had often stood in contrast to Vijayan’s more centralised and assertive style of leadership.
It may not yet amount to an open revolt.
But coming from a serving CPI-M district committee member at a politically sensitive moment, Sasidharan’s post could well be read as the first unmistakable ideological salvo from within the party against the political culture that has come to define the Vijayan years.
–IANS
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